We caught up with Marilyn Manson in New Orleans. It seemed like theideal town for someone as dark and sinister as Mr. Manson, so weasked what sights he'd been seeing.

"Well, last night we went grave digging,'' he said.Oh, jeez. Here we go.

"There's this old cemetery around here, and the weather hasdeteriorated the ground — it's just this big mud puddle,'' Mansonexplained. "There are pieces of coffins and corpses lying around,and no one seems to care. So we kind of went shopping at the boneflea market. It's not something I'm really into, but our bassistlikes to put them in his hair.''

Such is the grim but happy life of Marilyn Manson, the heartof darkness from the terminally happy state of Florida, and therising messiahs in the cult of death metal. Granted, rock is filledwith bands who enjoy turning the notion of good taste upside down,but Manson's is a particularly putrid strain, specializing in songsabout blood, disease, rape and abuse.

But don't be too quick to judge. Manson's mission has less todo with advocacy of these evils and more to do with reflecting themback in our faces. Mr. Manson, as the band's leader is hailed,blames us for creating him.

It's best to let him explain.

"Anyone who misunderstands Marilyn Manson right off the batand takes it for the shock value only — thinks we're glorifyinganything — is just feeding into the very trap that we're allabout,'' Manson said. "If you're disgusted by us, then you shouldbe asking yourselves why you're disgusted and why you created thispossibility in the first place.''

Fliers broadcast about to promote the album feature a searingopen letter "to whom it may conform'' from Mr. Manson. It isdecorated with the typical skulls, bugs, syringes and pieces ofcandy. Some highlights: "Marilyn Manson is the harvest ofthown-away kids, and America is now afraid to reap what it hassown. You have spoonfed us Saturday morning mouthfuls of maggotsand lies disguised in your sugary breakfast cereals. The plates youmade us clean were filled with your fears. These things havehardened in our soft, pink bellies ... It's too late to take it allback. This is your world in which we grow, and we will grow to hateyou.''

Gulp.

The band is Manson's vehicle for getting his message across.The band has barely cracked sales of 50,000, and the debut disc,"Portrait of an American Family,'' is not likely to go platinum."I still don't think I've gotten across to enough people,''Manson said.

Still, here they are getting written up in our own placidcommunity. The message is getting out. And Manson chose his mediumwell. Before the band came together five years ago, he consideredbeing a writer, but he figured music got into more people's headsthan any other form of communication.

"Music is the most powerful form of expression in America,''he said. "That's where the great tyrants and anti-Christs, thepeople who want to make some sort of big social change, aretalking. If Hitler were alive today, he'd be a rock star.''

You can just hear Bob Dole quivering, can't you? MarilynManson is the perfect target for a campaign ad: Manson himself isthe creepiest visage on the continent, strewn with Alice Cooperraccoon eyes, vicious tattoos and blood often trickling over hisdeathly pale skin. He's bound to be spotted soon in a campaigncommercial, frightening old housewives while a serene voice tellsthem that this is the state of all rock music today and, if youdon't vote for Candidate A, your children will be under directorders from Marilyn Manson to pillage the countryside.

Oh — and the music? Well, yes, there's music at the heart ofthis, too. "Portrait of an American Family'' is the first dealwith Nothing Records, founded by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor. Hishand in the album's distorted, edgy production is obvious. Theguitar riffs and song structures are nothing terribly uniquemusically, but the vocal effects and Manson's ranting areuncomfortable and scary.

But is that all there is to Marilyn Manson — a freakygimmick? Most of the bands Manson claims as influences used thelipstick and bodily secretion fixations strictly to sell records.

"I get a lot of flak from people who think that what I doisn't me, that it's just an image we put forth to get attention,''Manson said. "I'm sorry if I'm a little more creative than Hootieand the Blowfish, but I'm not doing this for anyone else. I want tobe the things that made me happy when I was a kid. Everyone has animage, even if it's a bland, regular-guy image. I make myself happybeing this way. I do this for me.

"We're in such a bland, politically correct era where musicis such a product on TV. It doesn't matter if you sound like theband last week — in fact, that's even better. I'm bored with that."

These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office.